SE: Q&A with K-State Associate AD for Student-Athlete Health, Wellness & Performance Matt Thomason
Jun 03, 2020 | Sports Extra
Matt Thomason spoke with Austin Siegel of K-State Sports Extra about how the athletic training staff is preparing for student-athletes to return safely and getting ready for football season.
The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
AS: What have your day-to-day responsibilities been like as you prepare to welcome K-State student-athletes back to campus?
MT: Over the last month, we've started working with the University to go with the framework from the Governor and Riley County. Most university departments are still working on their operational plans, but we knew ours was going to go a little quicker. [Executive Associate AD/Internal Operations and Event Management] Casey Scott and I have put a lot of work into that plan, gotten that approved and now this is our second week with staff back in the office.
AS: Has there been one main challenge with getting student-athletes back or a few little challenges that pop up every day?
MT: The entire process is a daunting task. The Big 12 medical people, between my counterparts and team physicians, have been meeting. At times, those meetings aren't the most enjoyable to sit through when you're thinking about the "what ifs" and things that you're trying to mitigate. It's been put best by some of the infectious disease consultants that we have in the conference: there isn't a no-risk plan moving forward. We have to understand the environment when we start incorporating student-athletes back in, between the high contact and the high population.
We can try to do our best to mitigate and reduce the spread of an outbreak that might occur, but that's going to be the challenge. That's the really daunting challenge. How you go about that is by tackling the little challenges every day that go along with it.
AS: Has it been difficult to hear about return-to-sports scenarios on Twitter or sports radio from those who might not have the medical background to understand some of the risks?
MT: It comes with anything you do; everybody has an opinion. Some are right and some are wrong, some are educated and some are not. The truth of the matter is that there really is no right or wrong answer. You learn as you go and try to do the best you can. Nobody's been through it on this scale, so you have to lean on those that are into the data and the science behind it all. You have to use the data as it comes available, and that's the kicker, we're only talking about less than a year where we've known what we're dealing with. Data points to make good decisions are not there.
AS: What are some of the challenges in adapting measures to keep every student-athlete safe for each of the athletic programs at K-State?
MT: It's a phased approach on everything that we're doing. Obviously, the focus is with football right now. We know the importance of football for the university, the community and the state. But everything that a student-athlete does is going to be impacted, from the moment they walk into a building. We know that everybody is susceptible to catching the virus, but we also know that student-athletes are, more than likely, going to have less symptoms than the majority of the population. The likelihood of the unfortunate happening in their age group is extremely low right now and numbers as recently as this week prove that it's less than the flu in their age group. The issue with student-athletes is that there is a greater likelihood of our student-athletes being asymptomatic carriers, meaning they pick up the virus, they have absolutely no idea they have the virus, yet they are spreading it.
The spread of the virus is the interesting thing. When you get into all the details of the virus and you understand that, the incubation period, meaning the contact from somebody that has it and giving it to another person and the amount of time it takes that person to have symptoms, averages about five days before symptom onset. It could happen as early as two days, but it could also take as long as 14 days. That's where you get the 14-day number for quarantine.
That's the issue we will be running into and trying to mitigate and stop the spread as soon as we can. How to do that is the undetermined science at this point. Then we get into testing and screening. If you could put student-athletes in their own little bubble and they didn't socialize or pretty much not have a life, then we could create a safe environment, but that's not realistic.
AS: During that time period when somebody with the virus could be asymptomatic, let's say K-State is playing West Virginia on Saturday and somebody tests positive on a Wednesday. What would be the response from a testing standpoint? Could you even play the game?
MT: That's the golden question and a bridge that hasn't been crossed yet. Has it been brought up? Absolutely, but we're at the point now where let's get them back in our environment and then we're going to worry about the season. That's where the Presidents and Athletic Directors are going to have to make a decision on what that season is going to look like. We hope it's going to be a full season but I think realistically, there's a pretty good chance that someone, somewhere is going to get sick and how does that affect the next game and how does that affect the team?
AS: What's impressed you the most about your athletic training staff ahead of student-athletes returning to campus this month?
MT: It's a new normal for everybody, but I think the real key is going to be two to four weeks from now when a lot of people are going to be working in a manner that they haven't before and putting in a lot more hours. It's going to be a challenge to do it safely. At this point it's been pretty low-key for them with screening some of the staff that are back in the office. I've already warned them that it's all about to change. They've always been known for doing things that aren't in their job description or their specific responsibilities and they're going to be tasked beyond those borders, as everyone will be at this point. But we've got a good, solid group of people that just want to help.
The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
AS: What have your day-to-day responsibilities been like as you prepare to welcome K-State student-athletes back to campus?
MT: Over the last month, we've started working with the University to go with the framework from the Governor and Riley County. Most university departments are still working on their operational plans, but we knew ours was going to go a little quicker. [Executive Associate AD/Internal Operations and Event Management] Casey Scott and I have put a lot of work into that plan, gotten that approved and now this is our second week with staff back in the office.
AS: Has there been one main challenge with getting student-athletes back or a few little challenges that pop up every day?
MT: The entire process is a daunting task. The Big 12 medical people, between my counterparts and team physicians, have been meeting. At times, those meetings aren't the most enjoyable to sit through when you're thinking about the "what ifs" and things that you're trying to mitigate. It's been put best by some of the infectious disease consultants that we have in the conference: there isn't a no-risk plan moving forward. We have to understand the environment when we start incorporating student-athletes back in, between the high contact and the high population.
We can try to do our best to mitigate and reduce the spread of an outbreak that might occur, but that's going to be the challenge. That's the really daunting challenge. How you go about that is by tackling the little challenges every day that go along with it.
AS: Has it been difficult to hear about return-to-sports scenarios on Twitter or sports radio from those who might not have the medical background to understand some of the risks?
MT: It comes with anything you do; everybody has an opinion. Some are right and some are wrong, some are educated and some are not. The truth of the matter is that there really is no right or wrong answer. You learn as you go and try to do the best you can. Nobody's been through it on this scale, so you have to lean on those that are into the data and the science behind it all. You have to use the data as it comes available, and that's the kicker, we're only talking about less than a year where we've known what we're dealing with. Data points to make good decisions are not there.
AS: What are some of the challenges in adapting measures to keep every student-athlete safe for each of the athletic programs at K-State?
MT: It's a phased approach on everything that we're doing. Obviously, the focus is with football right now. We know the importance of football for the university, the community and the state. But everything that a student-athlete does is going to be impacted, from the moment they walk into a building. We know that everybody is susceptible to catching the virus, but we also know that student-athletes are, more than likely, going to have less symptoms than the majority of the population. The likelihood of the unfortunate happening in their age group is extremely low right now and numbers as recently as this week prove that it's less than the flu in their age group. The issue with student-athletes is that there is a greater likelihood of our student-athletes being asymptomatic carriers, meaning they pick up the virus, they have absolutely no idea they have the virus, yet they are spreading it.
The spread of the virus is the interesting thing. When you get into all the details of the virus and you understand that, the incubation period, meaning the contact from somebody that has it and giving it to another person and the amount of time it takes that person to have symptoms, averages about five days before symptom onset. It could happen as early as two days, but it could also take as long as 14 days. That's where you get the 14-day number for quarantine.
That's the issue we will be running into and trying to mitigate and stop the spread as soon as we can. How to do that is the undetermined science at this point. Then we get into testing and screening. If you could put student-athletes in their own little bubble and they didn't socialize or pretty much not have a life, then we could create a safe environment, but that's not realistic.
AS: During that time period when somebody with the virus could be asymptomatic, let's say K-State is playing West Virginia on Saturday and somebody tests positive on a Wednesday. What would be the response from a testing standpoint? Could you even play the game?
MT: That's the golden question and a bridge that hasn't been crossed yet. Has it been brought up? Absolutely, but we're at the point now where let's get them back in our environment and then we're going to worry about the season. That's where the Presidents and Athletic Directors are going to have to make a decision on what that season is going to look like. We hope it's going to be a full season but I think realistically, there's a pretty good chance that someone, somewhere is going to get sick and how does that affect the next game and how does that affect the team?
AS: What's impressed you the most about your athletic training staff ahead of student-athletes returning to campus this month?
MT: It's a new normal for everybody, but I think the real key is going to be two to four weeks from now when a lot of people are going to be working in a manner that they haven't before and putting in a lot more hours. It's going to be a challenge to do it safely. At this point it's been pretty low-key for them with screening some of the staff that are back in the office. I've already warned them that it's all about to change. They've always been known for doing things that aren't in their job description or their specific responsibilities and they're going to be tasked beyond those borders, as everyone will be at this point. But we've got a good, solid group of people that just want to help.
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